0:04

Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production

0:07

of I Heart Radio. If

0:25

there was any doubt remaining that the Republican

0:27

Party is now nothing more than an out of

0:29

control gang of soulless

0:31

thugs dedicated not just to

0:33

the destruction of the sacred American peaceful

0:36

transfer of power, but also to the

0:38

erasure of the cannon against political

0:40

violence, that doubt was eliminated

0:43

this weekend. No. Not

0:45

when Trump made a barely veiled threat

0:47

against his own party's leader in the

0:50

Senate. No not when he attached

0:52

to cheap racist insult against the leader's

0:54

wife, formerly a member of his own

0:57

cabinet. And no, not when Marjorie

0:59

Taylor Green advocated for proactive

1:02

violence against liberals. But rather

1:05

when another United States Senator,

1:07

the living definition of self unawareness,

1:10

the princess of the non committal

1:13

quote, actually finally

1:15

said something about the coming title

1:18

wave of political violence in this nation,

1:20

and she both sides it. I

1:24

wouldn't be surprised, Senator Susan

1:26

Collins of Maine told The New York Times

1:28

if a Senator or House member were

1:31

killed, what started with abusive

1:33

phone calls is now translating

1:35

into active threats of violence and

1:38

real violence. Congratulations,

1:42

Senator, While you have been devoting your

1:44

last twenty five years in the Senate to finding

1:46

new ways to say, I believe they have

1:49

learned their lesson and finding new

1:51

excuses for having Supreme Court

1:53

nominees lie to you to your

1:55

face. While you have been sequestered

1:58

from real life. Your party,

2:00

the Republican Party, tried to overthrow

2:03

this democracy just under twenty one

2:05

months ago, and instead of standing against

2:07

them or standing for something, you

2:10

and the so called moderates of the GOP

2:13

have done nothing to steer this country

2:15

away from a political abyss

2:17

your people have created.

2:21

After the Republican Supreme Court

2:23

gutted Row v. Wade, You Susan

2:25

Collins called the cops on

2:28

non violent citizens using

2:30

non violent chalk to protest

2:33

your non intelligence. But

2:35

you have not had the courage to speak one

2:38

word against Trump and against

2:40

the growing spiral of violent words

2:42

and violent deeds and violent threats

2:44

committed by Republican office holders,

2:47

Republican candidates, Republican street

2:49

mobs, not even in the space

2:51

created deliberately or otherwise

2:54

by inert Democrats that would

2:56

have provided the chance for your party

2:58

to clean its own house before

3:00

it was too late. I

3:03

wouldn't be surprised if a Senator

3:05

or House member were killed. They

3:07

tried to hang the vice president

3:10

Senator, it was in all the

3:12

papers. In

3:14

July, a man went to

3:16

Congressman Jamilla Jayapal's home

3:18

and shouted, I'm going to kill you

3:21

Senator. In June, a retired

3:23

Wisconsin judge was tortured and murdered

3:25

in his home Senator by a terrorist

3:28

who had a hit list of other Trump enemies

3:30

he also wanted to kill, including Minority

3:32

Leader McConnell and Governor's Evers and

3:34

Whittner. Senator would be

3:36

Republican state Senator in Rhode Island, Jeane

3:39

Lugo physically attacked his

3:41

would be Democratic state Senate rival

3:43

a woman at a pro choice

3:45

rally. Senator The chairman

3:48

of the Oklahoma Republican Party, John

3:50

Bennett, said Dr Tony Fauci should be

3:52

tried and put in front of a firing

3:54

squad. Senator. A man tried

3:56

to break into FBI headquarters in Cincinnati.

3:59

Senator January, six committee

4:01

members have been threatened. Senator, election workers,

4:03

governors, Kyle Bersman, candidates, campaign

4:06

volunteers. Your fellow Senator

4:08

Lindsay Graham has forecast riots

4:11

in the street if Trump's criminality

4:14

is not acquiesced to. Senator

4:16

Marjorie Taylor Green has claimed Democrats

4:19

have already started the killings of

4:21

Republicans. Senator Lauren

4:23

Bobert tweeted, we must terminate

4:26

this presidency. Senator the

4:28

Republican candidate for the Senate from Pennsylvania,

4:31

memit Oz said the Second Amendment

4:33

exists to protect ourselves

4:35

from intruders or an overly

4:38

intrusive government. Senator the

4:40

Republican candidate for governor of Arizona, Kerry

4:42

Lake, threatened the government and the citizens

4:45

with quote A trillion rounds of

4:47

ammos? Senator, have

4:49

you heard about any of this? Has

4:51

any it gotten through the bubble

4:54

that surrounds Susan Collins? The

4:58

Republican candidate for Attorney General of Nevada

5:00

Seagal Chatta said the Democratic

5:02

incumbent and African American quote

5:05

should be hanging from an f ing crane.

5:07

Senator the Republican majority leader

5:09

of the New Hampshire House, Jason Osborne,

5:11

tweeted before the fourth of July that instead of

5:13

buying more hot dogs, his constituents

5:16

should quote grab a few more rounds

5:18

for your a K forty seven you'll thank

5:20

yourself later. Senator. And

5:23

on July fourth weekend, Patriot Front

5:25

march through Boston on Saturday and the

5:27

Proud Boys march through Philadelphia on Sunday.

5:29

Senator Turning Point USA

5:31

held its youth conference in Tampa in July.

5:34

Senator out in Front men with Nazi

5:36

flags. Senator A Republican

5:39

fascist group was arrested at a Pride march

5:41

in Idaho before law enforcement

5:43

stars say they could attempt to bludgeon

5:46

marchers and allies to death. Senator.

5:50

One of a group of Christo fascist nationalists

5:52

at a Pride march in Pennsylvania carried a

5:54

sign reading burn gaye. Senator.

5:57

An anti gay, anti Semitic activist

6:00

in a Trump hat, Kelly Knighters,

6:02

called for rounding up people who partici

6:04

sipated in Pride events. Senator Trump

6:07

ally and failed North Carolina congressional

6:09

candidate Pastor Mark Burns

6:12

called for the execution of LGBTQ

6:14

people and doctors who care for trans

6:17

kids. Senator any

6:20

of this sound familiar, Senator Collins,

6:22

any of it at all? Sometimes.

6:24

Trump attorney Peter Tickton called for

6:27

capital punishment for members of the Biden

6:29

administration. Senator failed

6:31

New York Republican House candidate Carl Palladino

6:33

called for the Attorney general to be executed.

6:36

Senator Congressman Chip

6:38

Roy of Texas challenged the President

6:40

of Mexico to a military confrontation

6:43

because the President of Mexico endorsed Beto

6:45

O'Rourke. Senator Tucker

6:47

Carlson went on a cable channel manipulated

6:50

for twenty five years by your party,

6:52

Senator, and urged people to attack

6:55

school teachers. Steve

6:57

Bannon demanded that the heads of Dr Fauci

6:59

and the FBI director be put on

7:01

pikes outside the White House.

7:04

Senator, and too many

7:07

of them to count,

7:09

Senator, have called for civil

7:12

war, and when one of them did

7:14

it on Trump's social media platform,

7:16

Trump reposted it, Senator, the

7:18

leader of your party, Senator, the

7:21

Republican senator endorsing

7:23

the phrase civil war, and

7:26

Senator, they have all

7:28

gotten away with this because you

7:30

and all the others in your god damned

7:33

worthless party value your

7:35

own power more than you value

7:37

this country. Senator, your

7:40

job was to take these fascists,

7:42

these viruses like Bannon and

7:44

Trump, and make them fear for

7:46

the consequences of their violent fantasies.

7:49

To fear for their livelihoods, to

7:51

fear for their freedom. This slob

7:54

Trump, this scum Trump,

7:56

this dirt bag Trump, is out there

7:59

every weekend making threats

8:01

and encouraging his cultists to

8:03

try to scare air, or try to intimidate,

8:06

or try to intimidate anybody who

8:08

stands in their way. Someday

8:10

that will be you, Senator. And

8:13

instead of you showing spine

8:15

and patriotism and fighting

8:17

to make sure Trump and all the others

8:20

soil their pants daily

8:23

for fear of what the law and the Constitution

8:25

will do to them, you, Senator

8:28

Collins, at the last minute at

8:30

the precipice, suddenly declared that

8:33

you wouldn't be surprised if a Senator

8:35

or House member were killed. This

8:37

is where you are, Senator. The nation could

8:40

go up in flames because of the political party

8:42

to which you belong. And you

8:44

just noticed it seems a little warm

8:47

in here, I mean, Senator

8:49

Collins. When they pressed Rick

8:51

Scott for a comment on Trump,

8:54

saying Mitch McConnell had a quote death

8:56

wish and about Taylor Greene

8:58

saying Democrats were killing Republicans

9:00

at least, Rick Scott said,

9:03

I think we all have to figure out, how do

9:05

we start bringing people together and

9:07

have a common goal to give every American

9:09

the opportunity to get a great job. He

9:12

at least gave us the courtesy

9:14

of having carefully crafted a

9:17

nonsensical buck passing

9:19

response some articulate,

9:21

irrelevant bull crap as

9:23

opposed to you, Senator Collins

9:25

being suddenly shocked,

9:28

shocked to find that gambling

9:31

is going on in here, Still

9:44

ahead on countdown, Lulu over

9:46

the fascist in Brazil, but not by

9:48

enough to avoid a runoff. The

9:51

days dwindled down to a precious view for

9:53

Aaron Judge. When you

9:55

run out of arguments for your fascist candidate,

9:57

what do you do? Well? What else? You attack the

9:59

reporter by invoking

10:02

the death of his nine month old child.

10:05

And these are the happier notes. Remember

10:07

the David Letterman blackmail case, Remember the

10:09

Jeff Bezos blackmail case. In things

10:11

I promised not to tell a statistical

10:14

impossibility. I used to work

10:16

with people at the center of

10:18

each of those blackmail cases. Fun

10:21

times. That's next. This is countdown.

10:33

This is countdown with Keith old

10:35

woman and

10:41

still ahead on countdown. What are the odds against

10:44

this? The guy who blackmailed David Letterman

10:46

and the woman in the Jeff Bezos blackmail.

10:50

I used to work with both of them.

10:52

There's an anniversary involving all this things I

10:54

promised not to tell ahead first.

10:57

In each edition of Countdown, we feature a dog in

10:59

need whom you can help. Every dog has its day.

11:02

This time it's Stella in St. Louis. She's

11:04

an every dog used it a

11:06

puppy mill or a backyard breeder maybe,

11:08

and then dumped barely a year old

11:10

and suffering postpartum complications,

11:13

including labored breathing and

11:15

s s LP. Saving St. Louis Pets

11:18

has started a fundraiser to save this pup,

11:20

who, despite all the abuse, wags

11:22

her tail at every human she sees. S

11:25

s LP has started a fundraiser for Stella

11:28

on Cuddly. If you can give something,

11:30

go check it out at Cuddley. Thank

11:32

you, but just retweeting the tweet about

11:35

her on my feed for dogs in need could be of invaluable

11:37

help at Tom Jumbo Grumbo

11:39

on Twitter. Look for my tweet about Stella

11:42

and thank you very much for doing so. Postscripts

12:01

to the news, some headlines, some commentaries,

12:03

some snark. Date line Rio de Janeiro,

12:06

The Vote that Could decide whether we destroy

12:08

the environment beyond repair by burning

12:10

the Amazon. There will be a second

12:12

round in the Brazilian presidential election after

12:15

the incumbent, the fascist Jayre Bolsonaro,

12:17

exceeded polling expectations and kept

12:19

the former president, known as Lula, to

12:22

less than the fifty pcent required to avoid

12:24

a runoff. The runoff will be on October

12:27

dateline San Antonio. The Sheriff's office

12:29

there appears who have identified the coyote,

12:31

the woman who called herself Perla and

12:34

conned Venezuelan immigrants into getting

12:36

on the RHN De Santis human trafficking flight

12:38

to Massachusetts. The New York Times reports

12:40

her name is Perla Parola

12:43

Huerta, just discharged

12:45

last month after two decades

12:48

in the army as a combat medic and

12:50

counter intelligence agent. Dateline

12:53

Tampa. There is still so much damage in Florida

12:55

from Hurricane Ian that we don't know how

12:57

many are lost or what the cost will

12:59

be to rebuild. We do know

13:01

that while Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio

13:03

said a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee

13:06

demanding assistance when it came time for

13:08

a vote for hurricane relief for Florida,

13:11

Scott voted no, and Rubio

13:13

could not be bothered to show up, and all

13:15

the Florida Republican Congressmen voted

13:17

against it. Dateline Manchester,

13:19

England. As the British Conservative

13:21

Party convenes a pre scheduled conference,

13:24

a new problem has been added to the nation's

13:26

economic and political crises. The

13:28

Times of London reports the new Prime Minister,

13:30

Liz can she make it to one d days

13:33

Trusts has insisted that King

13:35

Charles, for decades an environmental

13:38

advocate, not attend the

13:40

COP twenty seven climate conference

13:42

in Egypt next month. It may

13:44

be a shock, but actually it's okay. He can

13:46

circle back and ask her successor

13:49

and dateline Warren Michigan. Sure

13:52

there was so much fascism and stupidity

13:54

at the Trump rally Saturday that it was served

13:56

on tap hot or cold. But

13:58

as she discussed family that once

14:01

lived in Michigan, Marjorie Trailer

14:03

Park Green won the title for biggest

14:06

unintentional self phone. So

14:08

I might be a Southern Bell and a Georgia

14:11

Peach, but Michigan runs

14:13

in my blood. Southern Bell

14:15

as in ding Dong, and good

14:17

lord, I don't want to know what else might

14:20

be running in your blood. This

14:34

is Sports Center. Wait,

14:37

check that not anymore.

14:39

This is Countdown

14:43

with Keith in

14:45

Sports Judge, not less ye

14:47

strike out three times? Aaron Judges

14:50

down to three games to do it. Tonight

14:52

at Arlington, Texas, then Tuesday and Wednesday

14:54

afternoons there he whipped three

14:56

times and walked once on a miserable

14:59

rain swaft afternoon in the Bronx yesterday,

15:01

wind blowing in, and he still

15:03

has sixty one omer's with twelve

15:06

to fifteen plate appearances left

15:08

in his season. In his last forty

15:10

nine plate appearances, Aaron Judge has hit

15:12

one home run. The Los Angeles

15:14

Angels signed show Hey Otani the

15:16

picture and d H to a one year,

15:19

thirty million dollar contract for next season. That

15:21

saves the two sides from having to go to

15:23

salary arbitration, or saves

15:26

whoever the Angels trade Otani two

15:28

from having to do that. The Caribs have not

15:30

had a winning season in seven years. The owners

15:33

just put the team up for sale, and one of the

15:35

game's all time greatest players, Angels outfielder

15:37

Mike Trout, is thirty one and rotting

15:40

on the vine. They have to do something.

15:42

Another baseball note, he pitched okay

15:44

and his major league debut gave up three hits

15:46

to earn runs in five innings and a five

15:49

to two lost to Detroit. But us

15:51

Nerds are jazz because the rookie pitcher

15:53

of the Minnesota Twins has one of the great

15:55

names in baseball history, literally Simeon

15:58

Woods Richardson fifteen

16:01

letters plus a space in

16:03

his name on back of his uniform. Woods

16:06

Richardson looked like a horse shoe wrapped around

16:08

his number. The sixteen characters

16:11

breaks the previous record of fourteen for

16:13

catcher Jared salt Labakia and

16:16

pitcher William Van space

16:18

Landingham. Now, if he

16:20

has a son and names

16:22

him Simeon and Simeon the

16:25

second gets to the Major's, his uniform

16:27

will have to read Woods Richardson

16:29

Jr. Which they'll have to continue on to the back of

16:31

his pants. NFL

16:33

the league has never come close to taking care of

16:35

its player health, but they're two new

16:37

loads this week. The veteran J. T. Watt

16:40

of the Cardinals stunning the game

16:42

just before kickoff yesterday by announcing,

16:44

quote, I was just told somebody

16:46

leaked some personal information about

16:48

me and it's going to be reported on today.

16:51

I went into a fib on

16:53

Wednesday, had my heart shocked

16:56

back into rhythm on Thursday, and

16:58

I'm playing today. That's

17:00

it. Then Jay Glazer Fox

17:02

Sports went on the air with his scoop. That was

17:05

not a good look, Jay. And in the continuing

17:07

saga of the Miami quarterback to a Tonga

17:09

Beloa, Pro football Talk dot

17:12

Com reports that the league will now eliminate

17:14

the loophole that allowed him back

17:16

into that game a week ago after an apparent

17:18

concussion. Gross motor

17:20

instability will mean you sit

17:23

out, even if it's cause might not have been

17:25

the head injury. That was the loophole that let

17:27

Tongua Beloa get back into the game a week

17:29

ago. And also the players union has

17:32

fired the independent not team

17:34

employed neuro trauma specialist who

17:36

let him go back and play a week ago in an impaired

17:38

condition after what he suffered that looked

17:41

like a concussion. Now comes the investigation

17:43

as to who let to a play again last Thursday

17:46

when he suffered another head injury that looked

17:48

so severe that he was removed on a stretcher.

17:51

So far, he's reported to be in good condition.

17:53

There are so many fingers being pointed in

17:55

this story. That there are ligament strains and

17:58

for the latest done those injuries, here's

18:00

Jay Glazer, still

18:09

ahead things I promised not to tell. How is it possible

18:12

that in the two biggest media blackmail stories

18:14

of the last fifteen years I worked with a

18:16

principal figure from each of them.

18:19

First the Daily Roundup of the misgrants, Morons

18:21

and Dunning Krueger if X specimens who constitute

18:23

today's worst pussons, and

18:25

the Little the Bronze.

18:29

Sophie corkeran a young lady

18:31

who appears to have won some kind of contest

18:34

and they put her on TV in the UK to say

18:36

stupid things. She tweeted

18:39

something that defines the modern conservative in

18:41

any country, quote why is Twitter trying to

18:43

censor videos from the democratically

18:45

elected Italian PM

18:47

Prime Minister? That is? She attached

18:49

a screenshot of how she had somehow not found

18:52

anything on Twitter for Georgia Maloney,

18:55

Now you or I or anybody else on i Q above

18:57

seventeen and a recollection that we have made mistakes

18:59

at some point in our previous lives. Would have thought,

19:02

wait, it's a search engine. Did I screw something

19:05

up? But no, if you're Sophie

19:07

Corcoran conservative influencer. You

19:09

know without thinking that Twitter is trying

19:11

to censor Georgia Maloney and you

19:13

and you must self martyr in public.

19:16

That's your job. So you tweet

19:19

the screenshot reading no results for Georgia

19:21

Maloney, which shows that you have misspelled

19:23

Georgia Maloney's first name. The

19:27

silver goes to Michigan fascist candidate

19:29

for governor, Tutor Dixon, even though the Trump

19:32

cultists at his rally Saturday seemed

19:34

indifferent to her. There is a reason for this.

19:37

She's not very good at this. She held

19:39

a news conference in Grand Rapids to propose

19:41

a bill called the Women's Sports

19:43

Fairness Act. She had her gang

19:45

where bright yellow t shirts reading Protect

19:47

Girls Sports, and she said enough

19:50

is enough and the days of throwing our

19:52

girls. I knew the basset are over. And

19:54

then she explained the bill would prevent any trans

19:57

girls from competing in women's sports in any

19:59

Michigan school. Then

20:01

she made her big mistake. She

20:04

took questions. One

20:06

of them was fairly straightforward.

20:09

Can you give an example of a transgendered

20:11

girl competing at a Michigan school or college?

20:13

And guess what? She couldn't because

20:16

the average number of kids in Michigan who

20:18

go through the process to play on the team

20:20

that matches their gender identity every

20:22

year, girls and boys. The total

20:24

every year is two.

20:29

But the gold medal goes to a kid named Alex

20:31

bruce Witz, and it's hard to

20:34

describe exactly what he does. They call him a Republican

20:36

strategist, and he goes around claiming

20:38

the party was created by Trump in two thousand

20:41

fifteen. And in fact, he's

20:43

one of those guys that people like Steve Bennon bring

20:45

onto their shows so he can complete

20:47

the act. And he has this guy, bruce Wits,

20:49

play the role of the ventriloquist stummy.

20:52

Bannon was interviewing bruce WIT's about the latest

20:54

round of fascists to have faced abuse, which

20:57

for the rest of us is known as having the guts to answer

20:59

questions which they don't, and they got around

21:01

to a discussion of Washington State House candidate

21:04

Joke and how CNN's investigative

21:06

reporter Andrew Kasinski found out

21:08

that in June Kent had done an interview

21:11

with a blogger who has openly said

21:13

America should have sided with the Nazis

21:15

in World War Two because

21:18

German Jews were planning genocide.

21:21

The Kent campaign said, in response to Kasinski

21:23

CNN report, how are we supposed to know? We don't vet

21:26

every interviewer. And then Kosinski

21:28

pointed out that the blogger and Kent

21:30

were photographed together several times at a fundraiser

21:33

two months before the interview. At

21:36

one point, bruce Witz told Bannon

21:38

that Kent could not be an anti Semite,

21:40

so this was all irrelevant because, quote, He's

21:43

got a lot of Jewish donors, very

21:45

wealthy New York Jewish families are big

21:47

fans of Joe Kent. Having

21:49

been defeated on the facts and having nothing left,

21:52

Kent's backers like this clown, bruce

21:54

Witz did what they always do. They

21:58

then attacked CNN and the reporter Andrew

22:00

Kosinski, whose reports are marked k file

22:03

turning off the music for a couple of reasons. You

22:06

may remember that last year Andrew Kosinski

22:08

and his wife Rachel chronicled the story

22:10

of their daughter Francesca. They called her Beans

22:13

and her fight against a rare form of pediatric

22:15

brain cancer. Francesca and

22:17

her parents were brave and

22:20

noble and were public about their sadness.

22:22

She was nine months old when she died. And

22:25

she died on Christmas Eve. So, of course,

22:28

while trying to discredit Kosinski's reporting

22:30

about the fascist kent to please

22:32

our American respute and Bannon, this

22:35

little scumbag Alex Brucewitz

22:38

brought up Francesca's death. It's

22:40

getting k file. He's from CNN. He's a total

22:43

fake news hack who uh you know? He

22:45

went through a rough patched I thought he would have changed

22:47

hard and become a decent person after what

22:50

he went through, But he's still a lion piece of crap,

22:52

and so he attacks Joe had by

22:55

basically accusing him.

22:57

Many have noted that the point of the Trump

22:59

cult is to reward the Alex bruce

23:01

witz Is of this country, the maladjusted,

23:03

the damaged, the people of this nation

23:05

whose humanity has been so broken and crushed

23:08

that empathy and decency will never mean

23:11

anything to them. They are the heartless

23:13

machines, the Alex bruce

23:15

Witz is, and Trump exists,

23:18

so they can not only feel like the total

23:20

failures they are, but they can be cruel,

23:23

and they can be rewarded for being cruel.

23:27

These are cowards who

23:29

will invoke the death of a nine month old

23:31

child to attack her still grieving

23:33

father. For being accurate.

23:36

We're getting in the way of their fantasies

23:39

of fascism in this country, and to

23:41

try to make him hurt a little

23:43

more, and to defend the

23:45

others like themselves, the

23:47

ones without hearts and without souls

23:50

and without futures, those

23:53

like Alex Bruce Whitz Today's

23:55

worst person in the

23:57

world, to

24:05

the number one story on the Countdown, and my favorite

24:07

topic, me and things I promised

24:09

not to tell. And I was reminded on

24:12

Saturday of two stories

24:14

about media blackmail, because it was

24:16

the anniversary of one of those stories, the

24:18

day Dave Letterman announced he had

24:20

been blackmailed, and they named the

24:22

guy that they had arrested for doing it, and

24:24

I said, oh, him, of course it's him.

24:26

I've known him for twenty eight years. And

24:28

then there was the bigger blackmail story and

24:31

they named the woman who was one of the victims, and I said,

24:34

oh, her, of course it's her. I've known her for twenty

24:36

years. That one first, Jeff

24:40

Bezos, the founder of Amazon and owner

24:42

of the Washington Post, was being blackmailed

24:44

by allies of Crazy Trump, who expected

24:47

to get positive coverage for their leader of their

24:49

cults. What they had on Bezos

24:51

was he had a girlfriend, they had pictures.

24:53

It would cost him hundreds of millions of dollars.

24:56

Were his wife to find out, he said,

24:59

that'll happen. In February

25:01

two thousand nineteen, Jeff Bezos went public,

25:04

said his marriage was ending anyway. He

25:06

was sorry about the pain that's caused his wife,

25:09

but he would now give her all she wanted.

25:11

And the National Inquirer blackmailers

25:14

could shove it amid

25:16

everything else. It suggested to me that when

25:18

you cannot figure out what happened to

25:20

the people who once seemed to have principles,

25:23

or at least seemed to have enmity towards

25:25

crazy Trump, Ted Cruz,

25:28

Lindsey Graham, others, remember

25:30

that the odds were amazingly small

25:33

that the first time Trump's allies tried

25:35

to blackmail somebody on his behalf,

25:38

that they would find in Jeff Bezos

25:40

the one guy who would say no on

25:43

the first try. I don't

25:45

think so. I have assumed

25:47

ever since that this process has been utilized

25:49

for years on Trump's behalf,

25:52

in business, inside politics,

25:54

and at its fringes, and that Bezos

25:57

was not the first victim of this, just the first

25:59

victim who said, f you this is why we have

26:01

f you money.

26:04

But beneath all that important stuff where she had

26:06

another occasion where my jaw dropped to

26:09

the floor and I had to reattach it with Elmer's

26:11

glue. The woman at the

26:13

center of the blackmail, the woman for whom Jeff

26:15

Bezos was going to leave his wife, was named Lauren

26:18

Sanchez, and like

26:20

everybody else in this twenty one century

26:22

America, I used to work

26:24

with her. Lauren was

26:26

a reporter and sometimes anchor at Fox

26:29

Sports Net when I got there, in only

26:31

sometimes they wrote her a

26:33

script once that actually read Roger Clemens

26:36

e r A is one of the greatest in his era,

26:39

and she, of course read Roger Clemens

26:41

era is one of the greatest in his e r

26:43

A. She was much better at interviewing

26:46

Lakers players after games, particularly

26:48

Shaquille O'Neill, even though he was more

26:50

than two ft taller than she was, and she used

26:52

to insist on interviewing him standing up.

26:55

These little visits looked

26:58

so odd on camera that

27:01

I remember seeing one of her stories being fed

27:03

in from the l A Forum and I asked the producer

27:05

were actually putting that on the air? Just

27:07

onto the gag reel for Christmas. We

27:11

did not overlap long there after, she gave

27:13

birth to the child of NFL tight end Tony Gonzalez,

27:16

long after she had ended her relationship with him.

27:18

Laurence Sanchez was hired to anchor the news

27:20

on Channel thirteen, which is

27:23

a station that was apparently created because somebody

27:25

would always have to be in last place

27:27

in the news ratings, and it might

27:29

as well be them. I was back

27:31

visiting in l A in the spring of two thousand

27:34

two and dived in and out of as many

27:36

newscasts as I could so I could see what my

27:38

two X employers there and so many

27:40

of my old colleagues and rivals were doing.

27:43

That's when I saw it. The worst

27:45

or perhaps the best commercial for

27:48

a local television news sweeps series

27:50

in human history in any

27:53

language. Sweeps

27:55

series used to be local TVs bread

27:57

and butter. During the weeks when the local ratings

28:00

were tabulated and used to establish

28:02

who was number one and thus

28:04

how much everybody's commercials would cost,

28:06

each station would do a series of

28:08

special reports within each newscast.

28:11

They were designed solely to be advertised,

28:14

to be sponsored, and to be as

28:16

salacious or silly or unbelievable

28:19

or titillating, or just as memorable

28:21

as possible. When I was

28:23

in local news in l A in the eighties and nineties,

28:25

we had a series at Channel two with a

28:27

very good reporter named Dorothy Lucy, and

28:29

the series was called The Search for Sleeves.

28:33

The commercials for The Search for Sleeves

28:36

showed her riding around in a jacuzzi

28:38

built into the back of a stretch limo with

28:40

an old guy with a beard and a couple

28:42

of bikini models in there too. That

28:45

had been, to my knowledge, the

28:47

low point of the Sweeps series.

28:50

But now, as I watched in

28:52

my hotel room in Santa Monica in the spring

28:54

of two thousand two, this is more

28:56

or less what I heard the voiceover announcers

28:59

say. This week

29:01

special report case O P. Thirty

29:03

news anchor In Sanchez brings

29:05

you how to meet

29:07

a baller? Ladies,

29:10

find out where to meet the athlete of your dreams,

29:12

Lasers, King's, Dodgers, Angels.

29:15

Do you want to meet

29:17

him? Do you want to get

29:20

to know him? Do you want

29:22

to date him?

29:24

How to be the baller? This week on the case

29:26

O P. Thirteen News attend with Lauren

29:29

Sanchez how to meet a

29:31

baller. I'm

29:35

not certain how they restored me to human

29:37

form from the puddle into which I had dissolved.

29:40

I do remember calling the desk to ask if

29:42

it was still Tuesday. It

29:45

felt like I had been out called for several weeks.

29:47

I was appalled, shocked, chagrined,

29:50

nauseated, mortified, embarrassed, humiliated.

29:52

And then I stopped, and as

29:54

an angelic choir sang in the background,

29:56

I changed my mind completely. This

29:59

was not Sweeps series madness.

30:01

This was not a woman debasing herself by

30:03

teaching others and how to debase themselves

30:06

how to meet ballers.

30:09

This was, for perhaps

30:11

the first time in Sweeps series history,

30:14

perhaps the first time in local television news

30:16

history, a true expert, lending

30:19

her panoramic learned comprehensive

30:21

knowledge about one subject, requiring subtlety,

30:24

insight, insider information, and

30:27

the selflessness to share it with mere

30:29

ordinary women viewers. How

30:32

do you meet a baller? I

30:35

would never have known who to ask. I

30:38

never would have known to whom to send my

30:40

wife or daughter or friend. Not

30:45

really. I knew there

30:47

were experts, there were scholars,

30:50

there were fonts of wisdom, but Laurence

30:52

Sanchez was the Einstein of meeting

30:54

ballers, And

30:56

even in the glimmering light of knowledge that

30:59

radiated from her that week on Channel thirteen,

31:01

Los Angeles, two decades ago, even in

31:03

the blinding aura of her brilliance,

31:06

could she have known that the ultimate target

31:09

of the Little Sweep series should

31:11

have been No, mere Tony Gonzalez? Or

31:14

do you want to meet him? Do

31:16

you want to get to know him? Do you

31:18

want to date him? It should have been do

31:20

you want to meet him? Do you want to get

31:22

to know him? Do you want to date him? How

31:24

to meet up bezos in

31:28

life? You just don't expect

31:31

people you worked with for a few weeks, like Laurence

31:33

Sanchez, to wind up as part of modern American

31:35

history. It just seems unlikely,

31:39

not that they could be involved in a blackmail

31:41

story like hers and she

31:43

was a victim, but that you could

31:46

have known her. And yet, for me this was the

31:48

second time. On October

31:50

one, two thousand nine, it was the anniversary

31:53

that reminded me of both of these stories. My

31:55

friend David Letterman came out onto the stage

31:57

of the CBS Late Night Show and revealed that

31:59

he had had a series of consensual relationships

32:02

with women on his staff. The

32:05

studio audience laughed, assuming

32:07

it was the start of some bit in which

32:09

the guys at the Hello Delhi would

32:12

somehow have a roll of some sort. But

32:14

Dave went on and on and

32:17

on, and finally revealed he had been the victim

32:19

of an extortion plot, and

32:21

that he in the Manhattan d a's office

32:23

set up a meeting with the blackmailer, who wanted two

32:25

million dollars, with the cover story

32:28

being that he had written a screenplay

32:30

about Letterman that would reveal all

32:33

the relationships, but he would sell

32:35

the quote screenplay unquote two

32:37

Letterman for two million dollars. Within

32:40

hours, Letterman's blackmailer was identified

32:43

by authorities. I saw the name pop up on my

32:45

computer terminal, NBC, Robert

32:47

Joel, Joe Halderman, and I

32:49

looked at it and I said, of

32:51

course, Joe Halderman. He

32:54

had been the assignment editor at CNN in

32:56

New York from the day I broke into television

32:58

in August until he left for CBS

33:01

News a year later. All television

33:03

assignment at has had to deny reporters

33:06

camera crews. There are invariably

33:08

scheduling conflicts and ultimately there are always

33:10

two stories to shoot for every

33:12

one camera crew available. But

33:15

Halderman used to enjoy

33:17

denying us reporters cruise. He used to

33:19

like to mock us, to make us gruvel,

33:22

and then when you got to your story with

33:24

your crew, he would page them and tell

33:26

them to go cover something else and leave you stranded

33:29

there. And personally

33:31

he had absolutely no redeeming

33:34

qualities. If you could travel

33:36

back in time to the twenty two or twenty

33:38

three year old me and explain who David

33:41

Letterman would be and what his fame would be like,

33:43

and how I'd be a guest on his show one night

33:45

when a presidential candidate canceled at

33:47

the last minute, and how somebody I already

33:49

knew and had worked with at age two or

33:51

twenty three would try to blackmail him

33:54

over staffers he'd slept with, and

33:56

could I I would have interrupted

33:58

you by that point and said, matter of factly, oh,

34:00

it's Joe Halderman. Right of course, Halderman,

34:03

total creep. You say he black mails this letterbox

34:05

guy. Frankly,

34:09

forty year old me probably could have figured out

34:11

the whole Lauren Sanchez thing for some time.

34:13

Traveling quiz Master as well. Although

34:15

I will make no comparison between Joe Halderman

34:18

and Laurence Sanchez. Lauren was very pleasant

34:21

and there is a lesson in

34:23

that for you. It's not

34:25

just nostalgia. It's not a brush

34:28

with greatness. To use a letterman asked term.

34:30

Wherever you are in life or in your career,

34:33

you may have yet to meet them,

34:35

or you may have already met them. But

34:37

this I know to be true.

34:40

You have your own

34:42

Lauren Sanchez and your own

34:45

Joe Halderman already

34:48

or already in the past. And

34:51

whatever your first impressions about them were,

34:53

or are or will be, you're

34:55

damned right they are. And

34:58

also keep in mind that

35:01

thought I mentioned that I had about Bezos

35:04

and the mail. Do

35:06

you really think he could

35:08

have been the first one they

35:11

tried to blackmail into supporting Trump

35:14

and the first one turned

35:17

them down and went public? Don't

35:20

think so. I've

35:31

done all the damage I can do here. Help me out. Give

35:33

this thing a heart or smiley emoji,

35:36

or email it to somebody, or write a review.

35:38

I don't even know. The Countdown

35:40

theme from Beethoven's Ninth was arranged, produced

35:43

and performed by Countdown Musical directors Brian

35:45

Ray and John Philip Channel. Guitars,

35:47

bass and drums by Brian Ray, All

35:49

orchestration and keyboards by John Philip

35:51

Channel and produced by t Ko Brothers. Other

35:54

Beethoven selections have been arranged and performed

35:56

by the group No Horns Allowed. Our

35:58

sports music. The Alberman theme from ESPN

36:01

two was written by Mitch Warren Davis's

36:03

courtesy of the SPN Inc. Musical

36:06

comments by Nancy Faust. The best baseball

36:08

stadium organist ever at our announcer

36:11

today was Jonathan Banks. Everything

36:13

else pretty much my fault. That's

36:15

countdown for this the six thirty six

36:18

day since Donald Trump's first attempted

36:20

coup against the democratically elected government of

36:22

the United States. Arrest him now

36:25

while we still can. A new

36:27

episode tomorrow. Till then, I'm Keith all Reman.

36:29

Good morning, good afternoon, goodnight, and

36:31

good luck. Countdown

36:40

with Keith all Woman is a production of

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